


Who is the fisherman?

by Ethenalar



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Badass, Blood and Injury, Christmas Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Violence, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:15:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25807228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethenalar/pseuds/Ethenalar
Summary: In another bid to capture five, this time dead or alive, does the commission bite off more than they can chew or bring in just enough faceless goons to overwhelm their greatest assassin?afterwards five has to deal with his family at christmas, can his family make him feel better or will his inner grouch prevail.
Kudos: 95





	1. Chapter 1

Yet again hot blood pooled under his body, spreading up till it heated his cheek. Yet again the cold concrete of a warehouse had battered his knees, scraped the skin from his hands and stole the last refuges of warmth from his body. Yet again, he had to choose to get up when the darkness held his hand and asked in the voice of a lover, stay with me. You would think after so many close calls; infection, starvation, dehydration, loneliness, along with all the other times he wasn’t covered in others blood, but his own, he would know that soft voice and tell it to go fuck its self. But it was never angry with him. So as the sounds of his siblings died in his ears, replaced by the cocking of a gun, he had to choose again.

They had actually thought this one through. All the other attempts to get to him had been rash and easy to beat, predictable. But it seems this one actually had a brain cell going for it, they had done their homework. They must have realised it’s impossible to know where he would be at any time what with teleportation, must really throw a spanner in the works. And saw from hazel and cha cha’s attempt that simply storming the place they thought five would be was a dumb idea. Instead they thought to pick off each sibling one by one, starting with who would be noticed least. Fortunately for Allison that meant she was last to be picked off last. Five peered through the crack behind a bin; one thing this body was good at was hiding in small spaces and not being noticed by people. She was already knocked out. Five weighed the benefits of rescuing her right now. She couldn’t be used against him, she wouldn’t be harmed, but he didn’t know where the rest of his siblings were. He chose to keep quiet and observe for the time being. Only ten minutes ago he realised the house was quiet, apart from Luther’s gorilla feet pounding away against the floor. There was no singing from Klaus’s room, no violin playing, no arguments and the TV wasn’t on either. They’re adults, they can go to the shops or anywhere they want, they don’t need to tell people. He had heard Diego in the bathroom a minute ago, but as he strained to listen, a skill which had greatly been enhanced due to the lack of noise in the apocalypse he couldn’t hear any of the old pipes groaning, or the hot water being heated, not even the shuffle of feet. Five frowned from his bedroom, casting a quick glance out of his window to find nothing out of the ordinary; he kept away from it none the less and quietly stalked through the halls. He avoided through inspection all the creaky floorboards and missed steps I his effort to be silent, making any onlooker giggle at his quiet dance through the corridor. He stopped in his tracks when he heard a slight cough from down stairs, Luther coughing into his arm from the kitchen perhaps. But Luther had been in the living room, and five knew the sound of a silenced gun, even when it was muzzled further by something. He calculated in a split second and reasoned speed outweighed the risks, blinking to his room he pulled the pistol from his pillow, again keeping away from the window and giving it another look to see if any snipers were there. None, he checked the mag, still full. He blinked again to the bathroom Diego had been in, gun at the ready and found nothing, no blood, not even the smell of it. He blinked to the living room and found to his surprise there was nothing their either. Diego could have been carried away but not Luther, definitely not in the space of a minute which meant they must have briefcases with them to teleport away, which also supplied the answer to how they had gotten in without detection. He could be next, so he kept his gun pointing up not down and blinked away.

“Did you leave the note?” a thin voice behind a bike helmet asked to the two who bore Allison. Five crept along the steel roof struts above.   
“What? I thought we were going with plan A” a lower voice replied from Allison’s left arm as the two lowered her down and hand cuffed her arms to the railing before moving to chain her feet together as well. Definitely done their homework, five thought as they pulled out duck-tape and applied it to Allison’s mouth.  
“for god’s sake!” the thin voice threw up their hands, giving five a good glimpse at all the weapons they had strapped to their torso which was conveniently protected by a bullet proof vest like the rest of the band which stood with hands on guns around. It had taken five a glance to count five in the open and a further five in the shadows, not counting the ones he had passed on the way into the warehouse, he had thought against killing them, these people seemed to be prepared and so would be sounding regular calls between them. The numbers made five cold and uneasy but when he saw all of his siblings chained together and to the metal bars behind them he felt the familiar thump of his heart supplying warm blood to his focusing brain. He loved the feeling of control it gave him even when he was so outnumbered and outgunned. The way he would twitch with anticipation to get his fingers buzzing after his guns recoil. He sent of blood in the air. “How many times do I have to get it into your tiny brains!” the thin voice wailed, snapping him from his trance. “We have a very short window to get this asshole. More time for us is more time for him to get prepared! We have to have the upper hand!” they were so right, seeing as they had already told him they didn’t know he was here and would be leading him into a trap, a grin pulled his face upward. He leaned forward and fell, ambushing them instead.  
All thought of silence was gone as everyone’s guns raised towards the sudden yelp then scream from one of their own. Flattened to the ground by the shadow of a boy, one of the bikers now jerked and twitched, grabbing at his exposed neck where blood spat, the end of a nail disappeared along with the shadow in a burst of blue light which lit up the face of a demon. All fired where his head had been only to hit the other side of the room, incidentally where one of the bikers in the shadows had been hiding. Some bullets bounced off his vest, some split the boxes in front of him, catching him the knees with both metal and wood and one stray one hit him in the shoulder. With two down five had already jumped to the next, one he knew was hiding behind more crates and thus might not be seen by the others. He would have made this one more quiet but had only the rusty knife he had picked up off the floor on the way in. stabbing the biker in the knee from behind, he pulled their knife from the back holster and ran it deep across their throat which was now at shoulder height after his knee buckled. The yelp still alerted the others but he was far enough away that he pulled the weapons he could get his hands on from the grasping figure. The first gun he unclipped was already slick with blood but that’s what washing machines were invented for he reminded himself as he pushed the pistol into his waistband, the twin to his own at the back. He just got the sub-machine gun from the body when light footsteps rounded the corner. Practice had him rolling the body on top of him to shield him, the bullet proof vest now his ally as he squeezed the trigger twice in an arc, exploding the biker’s kneecap and throwing his shoulder back. He hit the ground hard and screaming but five soon put up out his misery when he picked the knife back up from the floor and ran towards the screamer. To their credit they had started to raise their rifle with their bloody arm before five pinned their jaw to their skull. He left the knife, favouring spare mags to occupy his pockets before blinking away to where he remember more bikers being stationed, this time on the opposite side of the room.  
Allison woke to the sound of cries. “I’ll get her.” She groggily said to the darkness before noticing the cries weren’t Claire’s. Her eyes flew open and saw too much. Blood was spraying and guns were flashing, people were drowning in blood and screaming. “Oh my-“she couldn’t speak, there was tape on her mouth, she lifted her hands to pull it off but metal dug into them. Her eyes saw even more as she looked down and around. They were all here, she was sat next to Diego who had fresh blood running from his temple and dripping from his chin. She used her shoulder to barge into him and shake him. The movement instead woke Klaus on his other side who took one look at what was going on and much like her sat bolt upright, glancing around wildly till he saw Allison. He reached towards her but was stopped too by his shackles. He looked at them and sighed but could do nothing else as someone dressed wholly in black, weighted with weapons and topped with a black biker helmet now sprayed with blood ran towards him and pulled a pistol.  
“Wait! Wait!” but the biker didn’t shoot him; they simply pushed the hot pistol into his face making Klaus try to pull his hands up in surrender. Allison pulled against her restraints too, bumping into Diego who now scrunched his brows together at the jostle. The biker then faced the fray once more. “Put down your weapon five, or I’ll blow his brains out!”  
Five’s cheekbone hurt from that last punch, and his shoulder stung from being slammed into metal but the scent of misting blood filled the air and so he pranced, knowing if he was stopped the hunters would get him. He let his body lead and his mind whisper. He counted. Three rounds left pick up that gun. Four sets of pounding feet entering from outside, get over there. Seven blinks reduce use. Five was his name. Two bullets just whistled past my ear, duck. One person was running away, ha, they should be running, but not towards Klaus who stared wide eyed at the smoking gun. His mind slowed for a second, but it was enough for him to notice and scald himself, he ducked away and rolled, blinking behind the four which had entered and unloading his gun on three of them, all to the back of the neck, which he had found was the only place constantly unprotected. The fourth whirled, already shooting, smart, they caught their already dying friends and a bullet carved a valley through five’s thigh before he got close enough to push the gun up, smashing into the visor which smashed on impact. Five then pulled out two glistening blue eyes and crushed them with his hands, he didn’t wipe the slime off, instead using his time to pick up the yelling biker’s machine gun to replace the one he had lost six corpses ago. “Five! Or I’ll blow his brains out!” the thin voice rung through his perked ears. He snarled, and in a flash of blue which made his gut compress he was at Klaus’s feet.   
Five learnt long ago that teleportation, once people knew, wasn’t that great, they expected you to blink behind them. What they didn’t expect was attacks from other angles. So five materialized basically on top of Klaus, the thin voiced biker wasn’t even looking in his direction, but where he had been as he had hoped. He pushed the gun up, missing Klaus by a hair as the discharge went off, five seen by his blue flash. But he didn’t see the other gun. Held away from his sight by the biker’s body which turned along with the helmet towards him. His instinct told him to jump, his mind yelled to stop him, Klaus was behind him. So instead he kicked the biker in the knee, causing him to bend down, shooting him not in any vital organs but the thigh which was until this point, unscathed. Grinding his teeth, he looked into the glossy helmet to see his own face, red with blood except from his too wide eyes which got larger as he leapt towards the biker, hissing in pain. One punch to the hand had the pistol flying away, the other bikers shot at him but he held the thin voiced one up by their vest, they went limp as five felt a bullet press the inside of the vest facing him, one bullet had managed to make it through. He smiled at himself in the mirror their helmet was making, his pupils stared back.   
Five blinked as the body fell, making it look like he had never been there at all. Klaus flinched, thinking the biker’s would continue shooting but they stopped, conserving fire and realising they had killed one of their own in their hail of bullets meant for the boy. Klaus looked back to Allison, not wanting to look at the body or the blood five had sprayed on him as he took a bullet for him.  
“What the fuck!” Klaus almost laughed with relief as Diego announced his waking. Diego followed suit of his siblings, noticing first the blood, the manacles then each other, this time he spouted off a huge list of obscenities while doing so. They jumped with surprise when a man burst through a crate behind them, flying over their heads to land in a yelling heap on the floor. The man’s helmet was gone, his leg was obviously broken but still he crawled furiously away, leaving a thick trail of blood behind him, towards the help of two other bikers who rushed forward. The man wailed and scrambled towards the gun which had flown out his hand. The other bikers stopped in their bid to help when the sound of splintering wood was heard behind. Five stood in the hole he had made with the man and picked up a thick piece of wood before smiling and jumping away. The bullets hit the wall behind where he had just been. The bikers whirled around, expecting five to take the low hanging fruit, not expecting an apple to fall from above. He gave one a good essay on how gravity worked and smashed the block of wood into the others helmet, not incapacitating as it would but giving five enough time to take out the man below him with a shot into the glass of his helmet. He then rolled forward away from the bullets from the other biker then round house kicked them in the helmet. Again the biker was phased but unmoved and used the momentum to his five with the butt of his gun. Five smiled and spat on the floor, pushing his gun back into his waistband, bringing up his fists in challenge. The challenger however knew five and decided to shoot him instead. Too bad he hadn’t been counting. The gun clicked and underneath the reflective glass their eyes widened.   
“No honour amongst thieves eh?” five chided and got in a good kick between the legs making them buckle to the floor. “Just practicality.” Five heard more footsteps, god how many of them were there. He looked up to the left this time and saw the shadow of another six, all in close formation. He took the gun out of his waist band again and looked down. Only to see a grenade without its clip in the bikers hand.  
“Five!”  
“Fuck!” five grabbed the grenade and launched it towards the on comers, pushing at the floor in protest of his bleeding legs to get away. It exploded mid-air, catching him in the flames and throwing him backwards through a crate and into a metal pole. Many things went crunch. Fortunately his mind didn’t though. His family, had they been far enough away. The calculation was slower as his own blood joined the others in his hair but he reasoned if he was ok and he was much closer they would be too. He gasped a sudden wave of pain hitting him, his legs, his arms, his chest, things burned and opening his eyes made the world spin. He was far from them. Far from the fight. He could stop now. Surely they were all gone in that blast. Surely he could close his eyes and rest for a bit. Please. But that part of his mind which liked to calculate told him if he could survive it was possible for others to do the same. He let out a breath, deciding to go on, to survive, to make sure his family was safe. He pushed up and swallowed his cry. Shrapnel again, broken ribs again. He hated fucking broken ribs. Obviously his body disagreed when it wanted to puke at the sight of his shoulder which hung to low, visible even through his blazer where the points of different bones were. And of course the smell of burnt flesh. Though it lacked the smell of beef so he knew it wasn’t serious. He reasoned his shoulder needed reconnecting if he were to fight. Turning his hand to lay on a rock he pushed upward. He wanted to walk to stop himself from crying out, to get rid of the tears but not yet. He leaned forward and managed to get down some rubble to his arm was at a right angle backwards. Again, he placed his hand on something sturdy and this time pushed backwards. This one was worse and he felt the bones scrape together before they locked back into the pocket that was made for them. He breathed through his nose only, knowing he would make a sound otherwise. Why didn’t he keep his eyes on the biker, he could hear that there were six, he was so stupid and now he can’t undo three broken fucking ribs-. Five stopped, his eyes snapped open. He was so stupid. He clenched his fists, feeling the familiar cold tugging he pushed, making it travel further up his arms. But it wouldn’t go further. He pushed harder. “Come, on! Just back, a few, seconds!” Fuck. Shit. He was out of juice. He wasn’t sure if it was a good time or not. He wanted to punch something but the burning in his shoulder reminded him it probably want a good idea. He held his face in his other hand instead and willed both the tears of pain and frustration to retract and bury themselves back into his shriveled heart. He would have moped more if he hadn’t heard scuffling. From whom he didn’t know, but all the same he moved as quietly as his limp and ribs would allow.  
Diego’s feel scrapped against the dusty concrete floor and he coughed against the smoke that filled his lungs. This time he was the first to wake, feeling even more hot blood on him, this time running down his back which would supply why it was still so dark even when his eyes were open. However when Klaus woke he assured him he wasn’t blind.  
“Christ on a cracker! It's smoky in here!” He coughed  
“Klaus, you ok?” Diego breathed, not sure why he was keeping his voice quiet.  
“Diego!” Klaus didn’t think he should be quiet. “Yeah, just bashed up. Jesus, do you think five’s alright?” Diego suddenly remembered shouting for his brother to see the grenade a second before he did. He had never seen five kill anyone before. He always saw him covered in blood that wasn’t his own. He knew he was an assassin. But the way his eyes didn’t blink. How his eyes were the only clearly defined thing on his person when there was so much blood. How you couldn’t tear your eyes away from them. He shivered.   
“I don’t know, I can’t see anything, wait, shhh.” Klaus fell silent and they could both hear soft scraping. It came from the right of the two men, Diego wanted to hold a knife, anything to defend himself really but he had nothing. The shuffling got louder, and by the sound of it, it couldn’t be five. Five was small and thin; these feet were far too heavy even if five had a limp. As he came closer they could see an outline in the darkness, the smoke thinning, escaping upward into the rafters.  
“Piece. Of.” A raspy voice came from behind a shattered visor; the glass had blasted inward and cut one of the grey eyes underneath, narrowly missing the other but peppering them with shards. “Shit!” they raised a thick gun at Diego and kept moving forward. “I told her,” their leg was half hanging from their body, smoke rose from the vest as it clattered to the floor, the strapped frayed and burnt. “To just snipe him.” There was a large piece of shattered wood in their gut; more were embedded in their legs and arms. “We would never be able to catch him alive.” The gun was hoisted up further, to their good eye and stopped a step away from Diego’s feet. Smart, he thought. “At least I’ll get the satisfaction of killing you instead.” He squeezed the trigger at the same time Diego squeezed his eyes shut but he was able to guess what happened next by the noise.  
Five had ran up and leapt on the biker causing the bullet to join the others in the wall. Five gripped the gun, pulling it skyward, away from Vanya who it had been pointed at from the floor and rammed it down into the biker’s eyes. They howled and let go, instead using their hands to punch five off. Five fell off, curling to protect his broken ribs but fired back at the biker’s now exposed chest. He lay there for a while ignoring Klaus and Diego’s greetings, thanks and worries, focusing on his shallow breaths, breaths he needed but couldn’t take. Eventually he used the gun to get up.  
“Where,” he wheezed and pointed at the corpse.  
“Where?” Klaus asked with a scrunched up face.  
“over there!” Diego answered and tried to point, making a weird move with his hands instead five rolled his eyes at the two of them but understood what Diego meant by which arm moved more. He looked down and checked his barrel as Diego rectified what he was trying to show. Five got up and turned around, positioning the gun on his left shoulder instead of his right so it wouldn’t get dislocated again by the recoil. He had almost limped round the corner when Diego heard the cocking of a gun. Five whirled, gun raised and fired towards the noise. Not before the other had fired though. Diego gritted his teeth and the bullet curved, hitting the ground at five’s feet. The biker however swore and was shot again when more of their position was reviled, this time in the shoulder. Five walked towards the cries and spits but had to turn again when more scuffling feet were heard. Five took his chances and ran towards the feet, hiding partially behind a crate with too many sides missing to really be called a crate any more. He came to rest just as the first biker came round the corner. He shot them in their neck making them fall back and spray the wall with arc with fire. Some pieces of plaster fell to the floor, along with more droplets of blood. But five found he was completely open to fire from behind as the biker who was shot in the shoulder finally stopped his cursing and fired at five again. Five was busy trying to reload his gun in time so didn’t hear the gun being loaded then empty into his shoulder, this time the one that wasn’t dislocated. Five yelled out and fell to the floor. Forgetting the empty gun and taking out a new one from the back of his shorts. He shot at the attacker once but he was hiding behind crates and a bullet proof vest. Five scrambled to Klaus and Diego’s horror, to find a place to hide behind as another biker came out from round the corner, taking their opportunity to get Five while he was on the floor.   
Five tilt his head back, eyes widening as they came face to face with another gun and rolled one more away, towards the centre of the warehouse where yes there wasn’t many places to hide but more paces to move. His shoulders blossomed with pain as they were rolled over until five couldn’t take it anymore and kicked himself up to stand. He was facing where the sneaky bastard biker was, he wanted to get behind those crates and kill him, the cover was an added bonus. But that risked this other biker shooting his family which were in that direction. So five twisted, lifting his gun and ran in a zig zag at the one which had turned round the corner. The bullets narrowly missed and narrowly hit. He was half crying out in pain, mostly in anger when he kicked them in the knee, pushed their gun away and his own into their armpit. A bullet struck his cheek then continued carving a line under his ear and past his neck. Five looked up as he fell with the biker he had just killed to see another coming from the smoke lined shadows beyond. He continued to fall with the corpse, smashing onto his left shoulder, not as bad as it would have been on his right, instead having to lift his right arm behind him and aim where he knew a gun would be pointing at him from behind. He cried out in pain as a bullet cut a hole in his forearm, rendering the arm useless, it fell with a wet slap to the ground, leaving him open to fire from the biker behind. Obviously the biker took the shot. But missed. The bullet yet again slamming into the ground inches before it got to him. Five opened his eyes and saw the bastard biker had put two and two together, he was turning his gun to point at Diego. Five rolled, picking up the gun with his left hand, letting his body barrier fall limply to the ground and fired at the bastard. Right in his exposed neck. Five was allowed a second to revel in the till, his lip curling up as he saw the dick’s hands grasping at their neck before a whole new pain exploded through his chest. It was a fine shot, on the other side from the heart. It wasn’t meant to kill. He was sure as one of the corpses littering the warehouse had said if they wanted him dead they would have shot him in his sleep. And to think he scolded himself for being paranoid.   
As blood fell in a waterfall from his chest, through his shirt, his jumper and blazer to the cold concrete below he looked at Diego. He slumped forward, unable to move from the sheer pain of it, he looked at Diego’s warm eyes. Blood now pooled and touched his cheek, warming it as the concrete below had cooled it. The warmth in Diego’s eyes was something his corpse never had; sometimes he had to turn away from his siblings looks simply because they looked loving, because they looked angry, they looked alive. He looked to Klaus who had more shrunken eyes, eyes so willing to emotion but hidden under many layers. These eyes looked sad. A hand roughly grabbed him by the left shoulder, the fingers entering the hole a bullet had dig through it. A gasp escaped him followed by a puff of a scream as ye fell on his back, rolled by what he hoped was the last biker. In the background he would hear things, people speaking, more voices joining, deep, high, maybe they were his, the parts of his body pleading with him, live! Live! I don’t want to die! He wasn’t sure if he had said that out loud or not but as soon as he did the biker undid their chin clasp and removed the helmet, dark hair spilled out, some was shiny with blood, blood that matched the lipstick she was wearing. The handler looked at him without his siblings’ emotion. No there was no emotion in the type of pleasure that was in her cool eyes. Eyes that reminded him of the dead. She got out a napkin from an inner pocket and dabbed at the blood which covered his face like paint.  
“red suits you five.” The handler raised herself up, replacing the stained napkin back to its pocket. “I don’t regret killing you five, even if I did like those little shorts on you.” five wanted to scoff but was trying to hard just to get air in, past the blood that was now becoming cold under his head. He tilted it right, not wanting to look at the pristine eyes of the handler which had filled his nightmares of late. Instead his eyes landed on Vanya’s which were now wide with fear. In fact as he looked along all his siblings had woken and now looked scared. he had never liked that emotion in others eyes. From the first time his father had raised his voice, to a trapped child in the apocalypse, Delores had been her name, even this morning when Vanya had stared it the whistling kettle in silent horror, trying to tune out the noise. He didn’t like it. So he looked away. Back to the handler who was now checking the round in her tiny pistol. “you’re a nuisance five, you and your whole family.” She bent down to spit in his face. five hardly had the strength to recoil, instead staring down those pleased eyes with his own, which promised death. “I’m glad I got to kill you myself.” Five was happy to die. He was too tired and in too much pain now to care. He had had a long, lonely and hard life. But he didn’t want his siblings to die handcuffed to a railing by this woman. A woman he had brought into their lives. The handler raised her gun at his forehead. Not when they still had so much to live for. She stood up over his body and smiled. He smiled back.  
She yelped and landed on her back after fives shoe slammed up between her legs. Rolling on the floor she forgot about the gun which had leapt out her hand in the sudden pain. Five rolled over and dragged himself towards his gun just out of his reach. He made a very good paint roller he thought to himself, noticing the even distribution of red he was leaving on the floor. He got his legs under him and pushed along quicker. He pressed the gun to her leg and fired. She screamed and clutched it, making her turn away from the gun she had left.   
“bastard!” she punched him in the face, he stopped for a moment to stop his head spinning and the darkness to subside but continued moving up. He got close enough to press his gun against the bottom of her jaw, making it point upward. She went still but continued to take shallow breaths like he was. “I didn’t die last time you put a bullet in my head five, what’s to say I will this time.” She sneered, tilting her head back down. He re-positioned it at her temple and spat the blood he had been holding in his mouth since the punch over her pristine face. She reeled back, then all the way to the floor when five fired his last bullet into her brain. His arm fell, dislocated shoulder not able to support the weight, his head fell down slightly and his ears picked up again people were speaking somewhere. He was too tired. He unclipped a pocket and took out a mag, reloaded and shacking, lifted his arm again, emptying it into her head. If one bullet didn’t do maybe more would. He let the gun fall from his hands and his strength l abandoned him. He rolled off her and onto his back and closed his eyes for a while, the fight was over. His family was safe.  
“come on Luther!” Diego practically yelled, stealing glimpses at five who was now emptying a full mag into the handler’s already dead brain.  
“I’m trying ok!” but Diego knew he was. the chain sat Luther’s feet was pulling apart and before he had finished his sentence the shackles were broken. He then pulled his fee up and pushed away from the many chains which bound him to the metal pillar. There was more of a strain this time and Klaus stared chanting Luther! Luther! Luther couldn’t rise his hands to break each of them individually so had to do them all in a oner. Diego looked again at five who was dropping his gun and falling back into the floor. “come one Luther!” there was so much blood. Metal groaned, Diego looked back and saw the pillar start to bend, but not break before the chains broke like a string of pearls, scattering everywhere. Luther turned right away and broke Klaus’s chains like they were grass, he moved down the line, Klaus already running over to five.   
Klaus pulled the handler by the arm away from five before sitting at his head and slapping it lightly. Five’s baby blue’s flickered open.   
“Five you’ve got to stay awake ok.” Klaus wobbled. Diego was suddenly there, running to five’s other side, ripping off his t-shirt and pressing it into fives chest.   
“shit shit shit.”  
“you’re really helping Diego.” Allison cut as she too flew to five’s side. “I’m calling an ambulance, anyone know where we are?” the others looked away from five and around into the darkness.  
“ehh,” Klaus started but was cut off by five’s wheezing.  
“docks.” That seemed to be all five would supply as he fell unconscious again.  
“no no five stay awake.” Klaus tapped his cheek again. Luther and Vanya ran to his side both gaunt.  
“there’s so many warehouses at the docks, it could be any.” Allison rattled, now practically twitching with worry.  
“Luther, can you pick him up and we can find a main road or something.” Vanya supplied, taking off the long coat she had been wearing when a sharp prick on the neck had sent her into this hell-scape.   
“good idea Vanya!” Diego pointed at her. Luther stooped down and picked up five who moaned at being moved, his eyes opening again as Vanya wrapped him in her coat. They flickered at Vanya then between the siblings. he opened his mouth to say something as Luther began to run along with all the rest, including Allison whose phone was pressed to her ear. He thought against opening his mouth again as the first jostle made him so nauseous he knew he would hurl the last amounts of energy he had into Luther’s arms. He tried to moan to get Luther to stop, crying out in pain as Luther held him tighter, pressing shrapnel further in. but each time he would only shush him.  
“we’re nearly there five, stay awake.” Was all he would say, it was kind of hard to sleep when the constant tear of a bullet in you thigh keeps you up.  
“there the main road!” Diego yelled from in front. Luther smiled and gave a last burst of speed much to five’s disapproval. The next time five awoke it was to someone tapping his face, right where a bulled had grazed it. He hissed which made Klaus giggle anxiously.   
“at least he’s still a cranky old bastard.” Five didn’t have the strength to reply as he was set down on the ground and Diego’s hand was yet again pushed into the open wound in his chest. He tilted his head to the side to spit blood out, not caring if someone’s shoes were there. He left his head there, not caring if it made his siblings worried. They pushed it back up to face them anyway. He saw their eyes again and new pain burst into his chest. He gritted his teeth against it and as his hands clenched instinctively a blue crackle rose. Maybe he would be able to dodge the handler’s bullet, or land where that bastard had been so he wouldn’t get show at all. Maybe he could be rid of this pain and the pain he was causing the others. He pushed. and paused for air, gulping it down and pushing again, this time a bit brighter. It winked like a faulty light bulb though and faded away.  
“five I don’t think-“but they didn’t understand, he couldn’t bear it. He pushed again and the glow lit their faces with neon light. He panted and pushed again but it crackled away. They were saying things now but he couldn’t hear them, they were muffled behind the buzzing in his brain. He pushed, and pushed, feeling that barrier of string he had to move through, he yelled in anger but someone held his hand, causing the glow to be weaker, siphoned off through them. He opened his eyes which were now damp and tried to push the hand off. It held on, without putting pressure which would hurt his riddled forearm. He looked into Vanya’s eyes. And read her lips, unable to hear the words behind the haze that was clouding his hearing. “don’t, you’ll die.” Five let his arm fall back onto his torso, his eye twitching as yet another bolt of pain passed through him. He felt many things now as his vision started to grow black. He was being pressed, pushed into the tarmac, his arm, his shoulder, someone was pressing on his chest and another was pressing his leg. But his head was being held. Ad least that was something he had gained past the apocalypse. Someone was holding him as he grew colder. Someone was stroking his hair. He heard Delores’s fair voice, a sound in the darkness finally. “its ok five, I’m here.” She always was.  
Klaus’s breath hitched as a small girl who was too thin, her dress in tatters, her brown hair lank appeared by Allison at five’s head. She tried to hold five’s hand but passed right through, looking sad, she instead sat at five’s head and said to him an a soft voice that she was there, that it was ok. Ears spilled silently down Klaus’s face even though he heard the siren call of an ambulance coming. The tears didn’t stop when the girl got into the ambulance with a lonely five, his siblings being told he was in too critical a condition to be riding with passengers.  
Allison held him as he cried, her tears making his hair damp too. Vanya joined the hug and soon Luther was holding his family in his massive arms, holding them away from the danger of the world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> less whump, more sickfic, I don't normally go in for adding more to a story, wanting to leave it to the reader to explore, but since so many of you enjoyed it i might as well continue it a while, lets see where this goes. thank you all for your love.

There was light passed the darkness that was filled with sound, and feeling. Lights hurt his eyes as he stared up at them, shadows moved around him robed in white and blue. Blue was the first colour he could see but soon he saw a colour that made his mind focus more. Red. Covering the shadows, staining and coating. As the world became sharper he heard thumping. It filled his ears, moving his head, his chest, leaking out into the silence. His heartbeat sped to keep what blood he had going to his brain. But someone was looking at him with blacked out eyes, holding another object which they covered his mouth with. They’re trying to smother me, he thought faintly, his body already moving muscles to try and stop the attack. But a white hot flash of pain poured into his soul, covering every limb, washing over and into his mind like a sea of needles. He gasped, the air cool but heavy in his throat and before he could recognise the white light had gone, along with the pain, leaving only the tempo of his heartbeat. The thumping lulled him to sleep, where there was no fear.  
Allison was first to burst from the taxi towards the pale doors of the hospital. Her body ached, her wrists were cut where manacles had been and her legs strained against the stiffness caused by being tied to the ground. Diego and Vanya who followed knew the feeling but forgot about it, as the image of pooling blood beneath five and the sound of gargling breath occupied their memory.  
They ran in, slamming through the doors to find the hospital packed, a line awaiting them to get to the front desk. The doors slammed open beside them, with more fervour this time as Luther smashed through them, leaving them open for Klaus. Diego tried pushing through the crowd to get to the front and was met by lots of very angry people who raised their voices even quicker than Diego could. Diego rose immediately to the challenge and stared down the first person who had stopped him, shouting about his brother. The woman who was being shouted at didn’t back down, merely looked at Diego with venom then spat back at him about her husband.  
Klaus saw this going nowhere and without thinking of the many people who had now turned round at the commotion scrunched his brow and focused on the memory of ben, how he his smile tilted his eyes, how it made others smile too, how he used his hands in arguments. And soon enough Ben popped into existence, being pulled from wherever he was to in front of him.  
Vanya saw the glow of blue from the corner of her eye and turned with curiosity, as did Luther who had opened his mouth to ask what he was doing.  
“Where’s five?” Klaus asked to no one, though people turned thinking he was talking to them. Luther shut his mouth as Klaus’s glowing hands ebbed away, instead lifting his eyebrows, not catching on like Vanya had. “Room 87 third floor.” Klaus repeated for his siblings who had turned, well, except for Diego who was now grasping at hiss empty pocket for a knife, then ran down the corridor, past the gaggle of people towards the elevator. He slammed his hand into the button repeatedly until the doors opened, looking back few times to look at nothing. “right.” he said once much to the confusion of Allison who had sped up to keep with him.   
They piled into the elevator, Diego running to catch up. “Good idea Klaus.” Vanya praised, earning the first look they had had from their brother to someone actually there in a minute. He let out a small smile before returning to looking at the air.   
“Oh good for you.” Klaus sniped at the corner of the elevator. “Ben says five was being taken out of surgery and put into a room when I so rudely pulled him away.” Klaus folded his arms, turning his head away from ben and towards Diego, missing out Luther entirely. Diego however didn’t seem as full of praise as Vanya.  
“Right, so the old man’s not dead yet.” The elevator stopped, binged, then slid open its doors. The siblings walked as they got out this time, reading the numbers on the walls.  
“Down this way.” Luther called, seeing the sign for five’s set of numbers. They passed many bustling nurses, people in wheelchairs and family members siting in the corridor, some talking, some lonely and silent, all looked as the group of five strangers, dusty and smelling dimly of smoke passed by. Klaus, Vanya noticed, was keeping close behind Allison, his arms kept at the front of his body and not hanging calmly at his sides. She thought it odd before realising a hospital was where many people died, a stab of worry ran through her for the brother who as not with them, and a stab of shame for not knowing Klaus better, not knowing why he shied away from the ghosts she didn’t see, why he looked like he was physically avoiding them when surely they couldn’t touch him. But her heart hardened when her memories flooded back from her time when the whole family shunned her, after five left and ben died. Why should she feel guilty about not knowing about her siblings when they had made it impossible to? The guilt didn’t leave as she had hoped though, but before she could sink lower into her own thoughts thy rounded a corridor and almost crashed into a doctor who was shutting the door labelled 87. Luther at the front skidded to a halt, Diego bouncing off him.  
“sorry.” Luther said, not to Diego, who rubbed his nose.  
“sorry.” parroted the doctor who stood awkwardly for a moment along with the five of them who crowded the corridor. “Do you know this patient?” the doctor asked, pointing towards the door.  
“Yes he’s our brother, can we see him?” Allison asked, coming out from behind Luther’s bulk.  
“Ah! I should have been notified if anyone came through the door, the boy had no identification on him so we couldn’t call anybody.” The doctor slowed his speech as he looked more closely at the bunch of them, cuts on their wrists, blood drying on their foreheads, splinters stuck in their clothing, and the distinct smell of burnt hair. “Have you notified the authorities? It seems like you’ve-“  
“yes.” Allison lied, cutting over the wiry man. “We’ve come in a hurry, it was our brother who was badly hurt not us, we need to see him.” Alison’s quick pace didn’t seem to ruffle the doctor who took his time crafting his next sentence.  
“Very well,” instead of calming the siblings, the tension stretched tighter, willing the man to get out of the damn doorway. “He’s still in an unstable condition but we’ve done what we can for him,” each of the Hargreaves’ stood like rocks as the doctor opened the door whilst looking at his clipboard. “We’ve given him blood, painkillers and antibiotics to stop any infection,” the siblings shuffled too slowly in after him, filling out as Luther finally passed the threshold. “Hopefully he just needs to rest and regain the blood he’s lost, healing takes the most time.” Once Diego got passed Luther the rest were hurrying to five’s bedside. He had lots of drips feeding into him along with a wrapping of bandages everywhere you looked, very few points were showing skin.  
“You say he is unstable, but that you can't do anything for him but let him heal?” Vanya asked from beside the doctor, she sported a thin cut to her cheekbone where metal had flown by.  
“Yes, it’s the massive blood loss and concussion which makes him unstable,” Klaus held fives small hand, looking up to his face where a pipe was feeding him air. “One or the other is stable but together they can cause problems.” Vanya waited to be told more information as Allison took a seat for her and Diego at the side nearest the window. She held his other hand and smiled grimly, thinking to herself that this was probably the only time she would be able to hold her brothers hand. Looking up at Klaus who was doing the same she realised he was thinking the same, and so held it tighter.  
“We’ll need you to fill out forms for identification and such; I would rather call the boy by his name and not his patient number.” Diego sniggered and shook his head but held out his hand to be given the papers. “He’s not going to wake up any time soon so I would suggest you all go and get looked at. He directed his at Vanya and Diego who had the most visible marks.  
“ok.” Vanya said in a small voice but didn’t move. Every sibling now looked at the doctor who got the impression something bad would happen to him if he stayed in the room with the strange band of people who had showed up out of the blue. He shuffled out, hoping to preserve his life.   
They waited in silence, hearing the steady beep of the heart monitor, after a while Allison didn’t want to look at the sorry state her eldest brother was in. she looked out the window where steady flakes of snow had started to fall. He heard Luther start to scribble on the forms they had been given and thought absently about getting the splinters she had pulled out. But she was too tired. She looked back at five and felt like crying. It suddenly dawned on her. The blood, the bullets, the fire. The way five had desperately tried to jump before he lost consciousness, the look in those young eyes. It wasn’t human. He gave it to the bikers who burst with blood soon after. But they lost their light. Coming back to the present she looked at five’s still face. They had washed it of blood, so instead of looking like he had been bathing in it, he looked normal. Like he was just a boy. A boy who had school and friends. But looking round at her siblings, Klaus who was staring at thin air, his free hand fidgeting, Luther, who looked too engrossed with his paperwork, Vanya who had taken Diego’s chair and was now holding five’s hand like he was the only person in the room, Diego who was hugging the ghost of their long dead brother, none of them had gone to school and made friends. Her eyes returned to his now clean unburdened face and the raging eyes didn’t fill her mind, the eyes she had seen at the end did. When he was lying in his own blood, trying desperately to get away, away from what she didn’t know. But his eyes had been so full of pain and grief, he had killed so many and he in that one moment looked like a boy for the first time in his life. A boy who had lived a long and painful life, who had done things he didn’t want to do, a boy who didn’t want to die on his own, but welcomed it as he was being held by his family. Those eyes stared at her in her dreams before she woke to reality.

White light trickled into his eyes as they slowly parted. The room was hazy and his mind was slow but he felt a mattress beneath him and a sheet lying on top. He felt metal in his arm and wrappings at his chest. His hands were hotter than any other part of him. They felt clammy and as he looked down to inspect them he saw hands holding them. His eyes widened further and he kicked his brain to work faster, a tug at his core told him his power twitched in anticipation but he didn’t move, not wanting to alert anyone, he looked at the hands. They were familiar, pale, thin. One had square fingers, the other had skin that didn’t stretch too thin. He remembered holding them when they were as cold as he felt just now. Klaus and Vanya. The shock had shook the cogs of his mind to turn once more making his vision less hazy but more blurry, he was alone with the two of them, in a dim room, with two escape routes, one looked colder than the other and lights shone beneath it, it must be at least the third floor. The beeping in his ear told him it was a hospital. He slowly moved his head left, towards the beeping, seeing neon lights which dug into his corneas, they danced but he focused on the numbers that were shown, they were too low for him to fight his brain told him but he looked down instead, seeing nothing but a cup of water, and some forms. Forms, he looked for the pen or pencil, anything to arm himself with, noticing chillingly that his back and thigh didn’t hold the familiar weight of a gun or knife. He turned right, taking a sharp breath in when his neck and head gave a heavy boom of pain, closing his eyes to stop the silent room from spinning he steadied his breath to the tempo of the heart monitor before opening them again. To success. A vase, without flowers or water but a good solid object and pottery made better shards to slice and not be sliced with. He started to move his head towards it, already thinking of a place to hide it beneath the sheets when Klaus moaned, letting go of his hand to shoo away at the air sleepily. He stopped, and weighed the options, he moaned again.  
“Shhu’ up.” Again he moved his arms around his head and over his eyes, batting away an invisible opponent. Five remembered how Klaus had mentioned ben and even conjured him before his eyes. He let his hand return to his side, stopping the fireworks that had exploded at his shoulder cuff from the movement, and closed his eyes, letting his head rest against the pillow, it was all too easy to fall asleep again.

“Can I not even get five minutes of sleep without you shouting in my ear?” Klaus whined, finally opening his eyes to a cross ben. “What the hell do you want Wario?” Vanya shifted and began to yawn at the noise too.  
“I said five’s awake, but he’s gone back to sleep again cos you couldn’t get off your lazy ass.” Klaus groaned.  
“If he’s not awake right now why did you have to keep on yelling?” Vanya looked up to her brother who had started a one sided conversation and rubbed her eyes.  
“I wasn’t yelling, it’s just quiet in here.” Ben retorted, crossing his arms again and looking towards five who looked to everyone in the room, unmoved.   
“Who are you talking to?” Vanya slurred, sitting up straighter, retracting her hand from fives limp one to stretch back.  
“Ben, he’s being an ass again, no you are!” Klaus saw Vanya stretch and thought it was a good idea to get up and see where the rest of his siblings had got to. “He said five woke up but as we see he is asleep once more. Which means dear sister,” he leaned on his thighs so he was head height with her. “We should go get some food.”  
“I’m starving.” Vanya smiled. “But shouldn’t we stay if he wakes up again?” Klaus waved his hand.  
“Nah its fine, ben can come yell in my ear again!” he ended with malice. “If our darling brother shows signs of live,” Klaus turned back to ben as he left. “Pardon the pun.” He then left with a quick ‘toodles’ to the room which to Vanya’s eyes was void of anyone else.

Five didn’t like being awake, but he hated being in a hospital more. He hated how it hurt to even take in a breath with the amount of ribs he had broken but he hated how the nurses cooed at him like a child more. Five didn’t like how nauseous he felt when he spoke to his siblings or tried to eat but he hated the silence when they left. So he decided to leave. He asked the first doctor of the morning if he could be discharged. The doctor had the nerve to ask him when, and then even more nerve to look at him with pity and put on the soft voice he obviously used for confused children who missed their mothers that they couldn’t leave until they were better. Five seethed but didn’t have the energy to bite back at him, well, he did, he just knew it would go nowhere.  
“Even if you did go home you have to be on this treatment for at least another week.” Five let his head fall back onto his pillow, the soreness that had been there had dissipated yesterday after a full day of rest the day before. But as he recounted the few days it had taken him to become bed weary already he remembered the infirmary at the academy. Surely there would be all kinds of chemicals that he would need there, and all his siblings had the same blood type, already home seemed closer than he thought. He could even bully Allison into getting him out if the doctors wouldn’t allow it. So with a smirk he passed off as an innocent smile, he spoke to the doctor the words he wanted to hear.  
“Oh well, I just want to feel better.” Five even kept the easy smile on his face, making his eyebrows relax so is eyes looked sad.  
“So do we, how do you feel today?” the doctor wasn’t taken aback by what was in five’s case a huge change of personality which anyone who knew him would see a mile away. He obviously thought the thirteen year old had simply burned through his tween anger and fear to finally accept his position.  
“My head isn’t sore anymore,” “good.” “But my chest still hurts.” The doctor smiled sadly, making his wiry moustache stretch even thinner.  
“I’m afraid you’ve broken many ribs and were shot there so it’ll be a while till you feel the same.” He even sat down at the end of his bed; five thought he had reeled him in enough to ask him what he wanted to know.  
“what’s in this anyway?” he didn’t lift his arm, making that mistake yesterday and earning an ache which had him biting down on his lip to keep from escaping, instead he motioned with his head which seemed to be the only thing, apart from the deep groove in his cheek, that wouldn’t hurt when moved.  
“Lots of medicine to make you feel better.” The doctor didn’t take the bait, oh well, he was a fine fisherman.  
“I quite like reading my dad’s chemistry books, it’s got loads of cool facts about stuff like painkillers and penicillin, I just wondered what it was.” The doctor smiled as he listened.  
“Well, if you would like to learn more, we have an antibiotic called -.” And just like that five learned of all the medicines he was on, making a mental tally, he even asked some kiddy questions like ‘what colour it was, he really liked green stuff!’ he felt sugar sweet, and it curdled his already fermenting stomach. But the doctor gave more, thinking he was helping the child to take his mind off the pain and instead giving the adult the means to escape.  
“Thanks doctor, that was really interesting, but I’m feeling tired now so I think I’m going to sleep for a while.” He almost puked in his mouth. The doctor ate it up, even giving fives hair a ruffle, he had to stop his hand as it twitched to break his.   
Five leaned back and took the deepest breaths he could to push away the nausea, running numbers in his head to calm himself from the pain which was blossoming in his ribs. He knew what he needed but not the amounts. He supposed he could get Alison to ask, probably could have just done that in the first place and not go through that hell, he was so stupid. Alison would probably agree a lot quicker if he said he was serious about medicine too. Oh well, it’s done now.   
“Ben if you’re here can you ask Alison to come in tomorrow.” He asked to the empty room, not sure if Klaus had told ben to stay or if ben himself had elected to do it, get away from Klaus for a bit, he hoped that he was there so he wasn’t talking to nothing. He wanted to be out now but reasoned it would be better to get out in the morning to give himself some rest just now, even if he heard his nurse come in when he desperately wanted to sleep and not eat. Tomorrow then.

“We’re home!” Vanya called as Allison took off her coat in the hallway. Vanya kept an iron grip on his hip, keeping him upright while five held her by the waist, grabbing her hoodie if he were too fall but not putting his newly dislocated shoulder too height on her body. He had been glad when Vanya had come in with Alison, Vanya had taken five’s side, being not so motherly, and had helped five walk through the hospital wards when he had declined firmly to use a wheelchair, much to both his sisters complaints huffs. Vanya was his size and so was much better to lean on anyway, the thought of being eye height with Alison’s chest didn’t sit well with him. “five’ here too!” Vanya called when no one made any sound of movement. Immediately someone, by the thudding of footsteps it was Luther, threw away a newspaper and skidded to a halt in front of five. Diego and Klaus it seemed were out or simply dint hear (care more like) that five was home so early.  
“I thought you were just visiting?” Luther spoke to Allison.  
“I thought so too,” Allison huffed “either Klaus or ben left something out of the loop and here we are.”  
“Surely you shouldn’t be out of the hospital yet.” Luther’s eyes dropped to five and Vanya.  
“No,” the matter of fact tone make Luther’s eyebrow lift. “Which is why I’m going to my room instead of speaking to you.” Luther looked to Alison who looked right back with the same expression as five moved Vanya towards to the stairs, limping heavily and going slowly.  
“Someone’s grumpy.” Luther whispered to Alison.  
“Yes I am, which means you get me coffee and no one gets stabbed.” Five jabbed back in a weak voice. Luther held back his snort, and to his surprise five kept moving up the stairs, not turning to threaten him more. This made Luther worry more as he turned to look at the two ascending the stairs.  
“Why did you let him leave?” Luther asked in the same whisper now that five was a little farther up the steps. Allison blew out a breath.  
“I said no and Vanya said no,” Luther lifted his hand in a ‘what happened then’ gesture. “but he smashed the vase beside his bed and pointed it at me saying he was leaving no matter what, and he would rather leave through the front door than by jumping out the window and running here in his hospital robe.” Allison stood with her arms folded as Luther shook his head, his mouth open. “Make the coffee decaf.” Allison finished and walked towards the living room, taking off her coat and bag before going over to where Luther had discarded his paper. Luther stood in the hallway, digesting for a second before concluding he had nothing better to do than just go and make a pot of decaf for everyone.

Every stair sent a pulse of pain through both his legs, more so on the left than the right which had only a flesh wound. But he pushed up with every stair, using the rhythm to keep going, taking in slow breaths on each stair. In, push, out. He repeated till they were on the landing. Only the landing, he looked up and imagined all the stairs that lead to his room. He instead focused on what was in front on him. Vanya’s constant touch reminded him he wasn’t alone. He got up the next stairs but felt his breathing hitch when his foot didn’t pull up enough. Vanya and his core muscles kept him upright though it pulled on his ribs. The morphine was wearing off now and he seethed through his teeth. Vanya stopped and was shocked when five continued on with grater pace. Soon they were passing the columns of the upper level and entering the wing which housed their bedrooms. As they creaked down the corridor he heard the familiar voice of Klaus singing some old country song in an overly thick southern accent. Five rolled his eyes while Vanya smiled. Five stopped at the foot of the steps, now regretting he hadn’t taken the blow in pride to be wheeled through the hospital instead of walk. His thigh was on fire, a fire that was now spreading past his ribs and to the hole carved in his chest. One more. In push out. Just another one. In push out. Near the top now. In pushhh, out. He had to breathe a bit more now as he slowed.   
“Maybe we can take a break, you’re nearly there, we don’t have to get there right away.” Vanya soothed from his side. He didn’t need to be told twice. He slid down to sit on the step they were both on, Vanya scrambling to keep a hold of some part of him that didn’t hurt. She saw that his face had paled since she last looked at it, and his eyes were staring at the next step as he tried to ease his shallow breaths. “It’s ok; we can have a break for a bit.” She was sure he would have scolded her for repeating what she had just said which would be seen as treating him like he looked instead of his real age. It worried her further when he didn’t, only gulping down air and shaking slightly.  
“What you two up to on the steps?” Klaus called, a little too loudly, his headphones still on. Vanya smiled past five to look down at him. “Five, I didn’t know you were coming home today, I haven’t finished wrapping you a present!” five groaned and Klaus got closer, pressing his head through the bars. “You doing alright there old timer?” he wiggled his fingers to make Vanya grin at him.  
“peachy.” Five pushed out.  
“We’re stopping for a bit since he looks like he’s about to collapse.” Vanya supplied with a smile to Klaus.  
“Oh but your chariot awaits dear brother!” Klaus pulled himself out the banister and skipped to the bottom of the stairs, neighing. Fives groan sounded like a weep. Klaus clopped up the stairs and sat down behind Vanya, laying his long body across the stairs. “Hmm, he does look a little peaky. You need more sun bro.”  
“Fuck off.” five whispered but blanched further. Vanya steadied him on the stairs.  
“Honestly though five, it’s not too far I’ll carry you up,” he leaned in closer. “I won’t tell anyone I lifted you like a baby.” Vanya bit her bottom lip to stop the laugh from escaping. Five opened his eyes again, and looked up the stairs. Only five to go, then he could collapse. He debated for a moment, it would be painful being carried, he was already in pain. So he leaned closer to Klaus who lay there, expectantly. Then got his feet under him and raised himself up. He used his left arm, riddled by bullets to steady him on the bannister, the bandages seen clearly past his school shirt and pushed off that step. His eyes watered, making his vision even more blurry. In push out. Vanya held his waist. In push out. Klaus stood behind, to catch him he realised faintly. In push out. He practically buckled on the last stair in an effort to get up it, but stayed on his feet. Breathing in through his nose to stop the wheezing sound his lungs made.   
“Well done.” Vanya beamed from beside him. He looked up from the floor to his room, the door already open and folded his arm to his chest, resting it on the bundle of nerves which had been severed by a bullet. It thumped quickly. He let his arm drop, its ache subsiding, and pushed off to get to his bed, which was so close.   
The snow drifted steadily down outside, leaching through the panes of glass. Klaus had rubbed his hands together and set about closing his curtains, pulling back his covers and turning on his radiator.  
“Sorry for the chill Fivio, if you told ben you were coming we could have put it on for you.” five knew it was meant to be a reminder that he had family who cared for him but could think only of how both his sisters had declined his peaceful attempt to leave the hospital. The cold seeped into him as the blood drained from his head. Only a few steps before you can sleep. He gave that voice in his head the name Delores, the one which scolded him for being silly and soothed him with thoughtful words when he was tired. And god he was tired. The mattress was harder than the one at the hospital but he didn’t care. The duvet was cold but he couldn’t feel anymore. Closing his eyes he heard the faint voices of Vanya and Klaus leave then return. The smell of chemicals and a prick in his arm. The sound of another huffy brother. The smell of coffee beside his bed. He liked that smell, he almost woke up for it. Almost.

“Well, since our little five is all tucked up and asleep I can finish wrapping his present!” Klaus clapped his hands together and leapt back down the stairs to his room. Diego followed him.  
“Did you get anything for me this time?” he followed Klaus into his room where some presents were already wrapped in brightly spotted paper, paper which was strewn across the carped along with lots of balls of tape. Klaus plopped down on a large hard pillow, one he had stolen from somewhere no doubt and cut the roll of tape which had decorated his wrist with his teeth, looking at Diego.  
“Of course, some toilet paper because you use it all!” Diego mouth dropped.  
“I told you its Alison!”   
“Don’t drag me into this.” Alison passed, going back to the living room. Diego spun about, deciding to follow Alison to make her apologise for the mix up for which he had been teased for weeks now. Klaus smiled to himself and ben before turning his headphones back up to full volume and shutting the door.

Five woke and knew it was dinner time because all of his numskull siblings were dragging chairs into his room, making one hell of a racket.  
“Oh no carry on, I wasn’t trying to sleep or anything.” Five wanted to wave a hand, then stick up his middle finger at Alison’s smirk but decided he had done enough exercise today and only gave her a dirty look. Diego it seemed was the one trying to be quiet. He came over to five and lifted his back, stuffing more pillows behind it so he was sitting a little straighter.  
“I can lift myself Diego.” Diego had already lowered him again and winked, not even listening to the boy’s snipes. Five looked around as everyone got in a horseshoe around his bed.  
“This isn’t an intervention is it?” five coldly asked.  
“Oh no, though it does seem like it doesn’t it. I’m Klaus and I’m an alcoholic.” Alison rolled her eyes.  
“I’m Diego and I’ve got a superhero complex, even though we are actual superheroes.” Diego chimed in.  
“Dear lord.”  
“I’m Vanya and I’m the reason we need superheroes.” Diego who sat beside her roared with laughter as well as Klaus, it seemed only Allison who was unmoved, instead looking too much like an exhausted mother three overgrown children.  
“I’m helping Luther.” She got up and left just as Luther rounded the corner with a table in one hand and glasses in the other. He lifted it over Klaus’s head onto the floor in front of fives bed. And put down the glasses which Diego leaned forward to arrange. Soon enough the table was filled with food, all pizza as none of them had their mother’s hands when it came to cooking. Diego filled a glass of water and put it on five’s bedside.  
“Soup or pizza five?” Diego then asked. Five smelled the freshly cooked pizza and decided hot runny cheese wasn’t a good idea, he was sure his face paled even thinking about it. “You don’t have to have anything if you’re not hungry either.” He really must have blanched to make Diego say this. He wasn’t hungry but he didn’t balk at the thought of soup so decided it would do him some good. Soon enough he had a bowl of soup in his hands and a basket of bread in his lap. His shoulders strained and twisted uncomfortably as he raised the spoon again and again to his mouth but he refused to let the others even think about spoon feeding, he was sure Klaus would jump at the chance to put a straw and an umbrella in his bowl. So he sat and focused on eating, keeping the mouthfuls of bread down and listened to the conversation his siblings had with each other. It was quiet ad civilised for the most part five thought. Of course there were a few sharp comments thrown and laughs had at one another but no one started flipping tables, even when a glass was spilled into Luther’s lap. Five looked at them, they didn’t ask him to join in the conversation, they were just happy to let him sit and be in their company. Tears didn’t sting his eyes but he rubbed his chest, gaining a few worried looks as he realised they had just wanted to keep him company. They just wanted to spend time together as a family, with him there. Memories of a barren wasteland, filled with a sun that would peel his skin off and bricks that would drain the moisture from his hands. It contrasted so heavily with the warmly lit room that was cool, a fresh meal in his hands. People talking around him, their voices worth more than they could ever know. His chest tightened again. He had done it, he had got back to them, he wasn’t alone anymore, he could live again. And that was what Delores would have wanted, so he joined the conversation just as pudding came round.


	3. Chapter 3

Waking up was easier today. A warm meal in your belly and a pillow behind your head. Five watched as yet more snow fell outside, a small rain-like shower this time, and gave his mind a minute to savour the silence of it. It hadn’t been even a month since he was sleeping in soggy hotels with no one but his gun and briefcase for company. He bunched his duvet in his hand. It was soft and warm and so unbelievably foreign but in some shrivelled part of him he wept with joy to finally feel the clean cotton of his sheet; even if it was in this childish room. As he looked at it now, the chairs and table of last night removed, he realised just how old it was. He remembered almost none of it. He can’t remember reading the physics books on his shelf, or kneeling at the window to smell the fresh morning air. All his clothes were the uniform he had to wear, god he needed to go shopping, but he doubted they would have suits in his size. Stupid body.   
The sudden anger made him thirst for coffee. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had coffee in at least three days. Diabolical, this was why he felt like shit. His eyes pinpointed to the cup at his bedside, left by Luther the day before. He leaned over; cold as stone, and, yup, there was a fly upside down trying to swim out. Lovely. Oh well, he didn’t like staying in bed anyway. Lifting his arm sent a ripple of pain around his shoulder and a revelation that he still wore the clothes from yesterday, the same shirt that was covered in blood. He shivered but continued to pull his duvet back. At least someone had taken off his shoes. He shuffled up and over to his wardrobe. What would he even buy for himself, the commission had given him a suit. And that suit had been the first item of clothing that wasn’t scavenged off a dead body in forty five years. Delores would have known what he would like. He wondered vaguely if he would see her if he did go shopping. No, he had to move past that time in his life. He huffed, then pulled on new clothes; slowly so his shoulders wouldn’t hurt as much. At one point he caught his cheek with his collar. wincing, he stroked the grove in his cheek from the bullet that had torn past him, the systematic bumps telling him where the stitches were. One more scar for the collection. No wait, he didn’t have any of those scars anymore. He looked down at his hands, they were alien too. They didn’t have the calluses caused by years of shovelling, climbing and lifting rubble, nor the small scars caused by stray wire, or the whiteness at his knuckles from scrapes and constant use through the commission. He huffed again. he was only getting sentimental because he hadn’t had his coffee yet. He stalked back to the bed, grabbed his cup and threw the useless brew out his window, it slapped on the ground below. His window was hard to close and he desperately wanted to slam it but knew that would only cause him more pain. He rubbed at the hole the IV drip had made in his forearm, adleast it was better than the hole a bullet had made in the other, under his cast, which- oh for gods sake! The cast, the dull white was already covered in sharpie marks, Klaus’s marks clearly shown with bright colours along with Alison’s and Vanya’s. At least Diego and Luther had had some respect by just putting mean comments. The unicorns were unnecessary. Another huff had him decide against a blazer as it wouldn’t fit over his cast, but favouring a jumper to keep him warm, knowing that heat was essential to keep him healing as quick as possible, any more time at the mercy of his family was time ill spent.  
He walked to the landing, cup in hand, and was glad no one else lived at the top of the stairs so they didn’t see the daunted look he shot towards the flight of stairs he needed to descend. He quickly checked his watch only to find it wasn’t there. Probably smashed in the explosion anyway. The light on his window had been weak so he hoped it was morning and no one would be up yet. He didn’t want to feel their worried looks at the back of his head. Rolling his head to stretch his neck, he descended the stairs. He was focussing too much on not falling on his face whilst holding the banister with a hand in a cast that he didn’t hear Klaus come out of the bathroom.  
“Ah! The poor so-“  
“Shut up!” five hissed “you’ll wake everyone up.” Klaus looked taken a back but continued talking and moving towards five.  
“Five its ten o’clock everyone’s up and away already.” He came to the bottom of the stairs, swinging his earphones around his fingers. “Well everyone who has a life anyway.” Five didn’t return the smile, instead focusing once more on the steps below him. Klaus seemed quite happy to just stand at his side and babble on about whatever crossed his mind which seemed to jump between thoughts as fast as five could jump between spaces. “ -I hate sugar plum orange you see but she was insistent- “ five gripped the cup in his left hand tighter. “ – But he needed a Philips screwdriver, not a flat head so I- “ five counted to ten. “-and then she said-“ five gritted his teeth and before he knew it he had jumped to the kitchen.  
Diego flinched when with a pop and a spark of blue light five appeared by the cupboards in the kitchen. He really shouldn’t, seen as how his brother had a half decent power that he knew he would use in the same way if he had it. So he scolded himself, and got very interested in his porridge in an attempt to look natural, and not like he had just jumped out his skin. But his interest was broken when he heard a mug smash on the floor. He eyes shot up, his spoon halfway to his mouth. Five leaned heavily with his bandaged arm on the counter, holding his head with his cast, his breathing coming in long shaking breaths.  
“Five?” Diego put down his spoon. Five didn’t answer, now holding his stomach and grinding his teeth together to give Diego one of his many manic smiles. The chair scraped as it was pushed back and his feet made loud slaps around the suddenly quiet kitchen.  
“uuuugh, I’m not doing that again.” five shook by the counter, his own feet splashing in the cold coffee which pooled on the floor. Diego got to him, reminding himself to grab his waist when five sucked in a shallow breath.  
“Five what’s wrong?” but five didn’t speak, going back to hold his head and scrunch up his eyes. Diego turned to face him, holding his waist as he did so, feeling like a flamenco dancer for a split second before his smile faded when he saw how pale five’s face was. “I think you should sit down five.” The last colour washed out of five’s face and his knees hit Diego’s shins as he fell to the floor. Forgetting all injuries Diego caught him around the middle, holding him up long enough to carry him away from the mess on the floor. They fell in a pile onto the tiles, Diego’s hand already searching for a pulse. He didn’t need to though as five shuddered and groaned.   
The world wheeled and a dark haze blotched out his vison but he saw Diego over him and heard the echo of his voice. His arms and legs felt too heavy. His head spun round and round making his stomach growl and slosh. He couldn’t be sick, he wouldn’t. He took down the deepest breaths he could, soothing the circles and leaps his body felt inclined to make. He closed his eyes and ears to Diego, knowing he would only be asking what was wrong anyway, what a dumbass. Note to self; don’t jump through space when you have four bullet wounds. He started to run calculations and theories about what it might have been to cause such an upset, he knew he ran on energy but surely he wouldn’t have been able to jump if he didn’t have any. What it a chemical imbalance? Was it the drugs he was on, or the concussion he thought he had slept through, or maybe it was something in –  
“Five!” Diego was tapping his face annoyingly, breaking him out of his thoughts. A surge of pain bloomed from his head, again causing his stomach to give him bile, thinking it would help.  
“What is it Diego.” Five hissed through clenched teeth.  
“What’s wrong with you man, shouldn’t you be in bed?” five wished he could roll his eyes but was sure he would pass out again if he did. He took in a shuddering breath to calm his anger.  
“I’m getting coffee, Klaus was being annoying so I jumped here.” He took another shallow breath, letting it go slowly out his mouth. “bad idea.” he swore he saw Diego grin, he definitely saw him sit back.  
“Are you sure you’re not just getting too old for all this exercise old timer?”   
“I’m getting too old for your shit Diego.” Diego grinned wider. “Since I’m down here you might as well make yourself useful and get my coffee for me.” Five dismissed him by looking up at the roof, a horrible magnolia colour.  
“I don’t think coffee is the best idea five if you can’t even get to the kitchen to have it.” In the space of a minute five had to yet again take slow breaths to stop his heart rate from doubling in anger, not for his siblings sake, no they deserved every piece of attitude he gave them, this was just so the blood he needed to be conscious wouldn’t flow somewhere else. Or so he told himself.  
“Where am Ii?” Diego suddenly looked very scared, both at the tone and the question. “Oh yeah, the kitchen!” Diego, having all his blood at his brain, could roll his eyes. “go get me,” he managed to push himself, much to the outcry of his arms, shoulders and ribs, to a half upright position. His vision faded to black but he continued to glower at where Diego’s eyes were, he pulled out the pistol from his waistband, still unnoticed by ‘detective dumbass’. And pointed it at Diego’s knee, or where he thought it was. “Some fucking coffee.”  
“What the hell is happening here?” oh great, the stern voice of another person in this house without a brain. He didn’t know if the anger was helping him or not but his vision was steadily greying again so he could reposition the gun to Diego’s knee instead of his balls, on second thought, he put it back where it was.  
“Luther, I was just- “  
“actually.” Luther cut across him to fives delight. “I don’t care.” Luther’s feet then thudded past him to the sink where he filled a glass of water for himself. “Five, its Christmas, put the gun away.” The gun was starting to make his shoulder ache unbearably anyway. Diego got up and skulked over to the sink the sound of the coffee pot being filled was music to his ears. Five let himself fall back to the floor, closing his eyes again to numb the pain which had sprouted in his chest, happy in this small victory. Soon the taste of coffee would be in his mouth and his head wouldn’t be so hazy.  
“Ugh. Five, do you want to sit in the living room instead of lying on the floor here?” five heard the offer in Luther’s voice and respected the man for not outright asking him if he wanted to be carried like a doll.  
“Yeah I’ll come in a minute.” Luther stood there for a second before thudding away again. He and Diego were back in sullen silence, the bite of the floor was starting to seep into his jumper. “It’s Christmas is it?”  
“Yeah man its Christmas, what, did you f-“ Diego caught himself before he ended his sentence, formulating this might actually be five’s first Christmas since he was actually thirteen. He was glad he was turned from five so he couldn’t see his eyebrows lift towards each other. Hargreaves of course never had celebrated Christmas, but as children they had gotten each other things. Coat hangers they had twisted into funny shapes, Lending out a book for a day, donuts one would sneak from Griddy’s, sometimes when grace could, she would make them treats that Hargreaves wouldn’t notice - their favourite cake for supper, a warmer hug. Looking back it was pitiful but Diego supposed it was something, and with no one that would seem like a big thing to five. Diego was suddenly filled with joy that this year they were all together, they had bought a tree and everything. Snow had been falling for three days now and there was a good foot of it outside.   
The pot clicked. Diego filled a new cup. He walked over to five who had managed to regain a bit of pink in his cheeks and put down the mug at his hand. Five grasped it by the top, stopped then looked down. It was one of klaus’s mugs, which was in the shape of a unicorn. Five’s head rolled back to stare at the ceiling, but he accepted the mug, smelling the bitter aroma.   
“Black right.” Diego tried to keep his mouth straight. Five sighed. “Well, I’ll leave you to…sit around some more, I’ll see you in the living room.” And Diego trotted away, leaving five on the floor in the kitchen. Five let out another sigh, then pulled his head up to take a sip.  
“This is decaf!” five yelled to the doorway. “Diego you bastard!” a small giggle answered him.

Vanya’s stomach had started to knot along with her finger tapping against the fabric armrest. She pressed her fingers into it to pull her out of the chair but stopped when five shuffled round the corner, holding an empty cup and the whole coffee pot. The family quietened but continued talking, five glared at them from under his eyebrows and without so much as a hello, lowered himself into the chair by the crackling fire which just so happened to be the furthest away from them. Both Luther and Vanya had known five would choose this winged armchair and so had left a blanket on the headrest. Vanya pulled her eyes away from him, engaging in Klaus’s conversation to give five the illusion that no one was paying any attention. Five took a glance to check the coast was clear then grappled with the blanket, fixing it around his middle so his legs were kept warm, he settled the coffee pot in his lap and poured himself another cup. Vanya, hoping she could look round without a sharp look met five’s grimace at the decaf coffee they had all agreed to give him. She bit down a laugh.  
“Finally!” she wanted to kick Klaus for making five look up with such a snarl on his lips. “that big one’s got my name on it and it’s been looking at me all morning!” Klaus’s lanky legs kicked him up then leapt over to the small – well, small for the room definitely- tree, laden with too much tinsel and not enough lights. Vanya couldn’t help the grin which split her face, she followed Klaus with a less hasty pace, not wanting to stay on the tense sofa.  
“You know, you can open presents without me.” Five huffed, resting his head on the wing of the chair, holding his cup to his heart.  
“Come on old man, I need someone to groan with when I unwrap whatever Klaus got me.” Diego offered, leaning forward to grab one of the bauble shaped cookies with slanted icing off the table.   
“Hey!” Klaus’s rear shouted from where it was poking out from under the tree. Allison barked a laugh, Luther smiled back, Five rolled his eyes. Allison, prompted by the lifting of some unease in the room got up to find something for herself. Although she was the latest to get up she was the first to return to her seat beside Luther, passing five and handing him a present as she went  
“This is for you five.” He accepted it with his bandaged arm, his shoulder giving its usual spark of pain. The corners were shoved roughly in at the ends and most of the tape had been crumpled, a card was slapped on the top with glue which ripped at the paper beneath when he pulled it off. His finger doubled as a knife to open the envelope which he discarded on the floor after glancing to where the others were leaving their discarded paper. He looked down at a store bought Christmas card with a drunken looking Rudolph. God, he forgot about reindeer and all that crap. He opened it to find more than he was expecting.  
Five, happy Christmas. We’re glad to have you back, love Luther.  
Something swelled in his chest which made him rub where a bullet had been lodged. He put the card on the small table beside him and tried not to show the sad smile which wouldn’t leave his lips, instead getting very invested in what was in the poorly wrapped box. A mug, wow. He turned the black mug in his hands, much like the mug he’d broken this morning, the one he had claimed for himself. It read on the other side, don’t speak to me before my first cup.   
“Thanks Luther, now I don’t have to paint a plaque to say this for me.” Five addressed the largest of his siblings whilst filling the new cup with more coffee, leaving the terrifying unicorn mug on the table which he realised as he saw the amount of presents still under the tree, wouldn’t be enough room.  
“The quickest Christmas present I’ve ever found.” Luther beamed from the sofa, holding a box with edges so clean they could cut. Five’s smile faded. He hadn’t got them anything. Klaus passed him, now wearing a crown of intertwined fake pale roses and daisy’s, and deposited another present in his lap, almost on top of the first.  
“Mine next!” five looked at Klaus with fear, seeing only mirth filled eyes glowing back.  
“You didn’t need to –“  
“Oh shhh.” Klaus waved his hand and sat in the middle of the floor, reaching back to take a bauble cookie.  
“Really, I didn’t exp – “  
“Five, just open it.” Allison pressed, inspecting the necklace in front of her nose. Five looked down at the newspaper and rubber band wrapped present. His stomach didn’t know whether to sink or float. He pulled the rubber bands off, accidently ripping the frail paper as he did so he already knew what it was before fully seeing it. His lungs pressed out a slight chuckle only to be smacked by his ribs. Biting down to supress his laughter and pain he held aloft a children’s story book. The sleepy cat.  
“Klaus I feel sorry for the poor mother in whatever store you got this that took one look at you buying this and thought you were a parent. She was mistaken,” Klaus looked up with a half-smile “you’re obviously a pedo.”   
“There it is.” Diego smiled. Klaus put his hand on his chest and make the best ‘ how dare ou’ face five had seen in a while. Five smiled back, wincing as laughter again wanted to escape from his ribcage. Klaus returned to him a sad smile.  
“Oh yeah I made a card too.” Klaus rolled over to the tree, and back again, handing five the letter in a reused envelope, clear by the stains and the ripped open top. At least he didn’t have to struggle to open it. It was indeed made, with crayons. There was a Christmas tree and everything.  
“And I’m the one who gets a children’s book?” five turned the card to face the siblings on the couch opposite him. He shook his head, finally feeling the warmth of the fire being drawn in by the blanket to shoo away the cold which clung to him from the kitchen floor. Diego hummed, and turned his card to face fives, sporting the same crayon abomination of Santa.  
“Hey I spent a long time on that!”  
“wow.” Alison had just opened her card from Klaus, turning it to show the rest. The rest howled with laughter.  
“I didn’t have red after Diego’s!” Klaus protested from the cushion covered floor. Five leaned his head back, setting the book on the table, he could get angry later, just now he was happy to simply listen a sound he hadn’t heard in forty five bereft years. His family gave it to him freely. They joked between themselves, batting each other when they opened a present considered a little rude or hugging when it was heartfelt. In the end Klaus got up to make Christmas cocktails, whatever that was and five realised he had been staring at them all in silence for a long time yet again, just happy to be in their company. Eventually Vanya got up and came over to him, filling the space beside his chair.  
“You ok?” she asked softly and lightly, not filled with worry but merely asking the question.  
“yeah.” Replied with equal softness. Vanya smiled, something he could never recreate in his mind’s eye, and handed him one last present. It wasn’t Diego’s fine-tuned edges or Allison’s bows, not even Klaus’s last minute scramble, it wasn’t extraordinary. Five took the card and began to open when Vanya tapped the box. Open this first. He cut away the wrapping to reveal a book, no bigger than a wallet, again, just plain moleskin. The opened it to its first black page, it was scattered with pictures. His siblings, smiling together, growling, drawing faces on one another. He flipped the page and there was more, they were younger, Klaus was climbing a fence in one photo and flat on his face in the second. He turned the page, it was Vanya playing the violin, a sneaky shot of Diego sharpening his blades, Allison putting on lipstick in the mirror. The next page was heavy, there was a picture of mom and Luther, five stared at it, Luther was so much thinner, it must have been before he had been injected with monkey juice, there was a folded letter at the bottom from grace to Diego when he was starting a new job. He turned more and more pages until he got to blank ones. He deflated slightly but Vanya’s pale fingers came into view.  
“I thought you would like to see what you’ve missed,” five suddenly felt hot, hot in his belly with anger at missing out, hot in his eyes with tears of missing out, hot in his hands that wanted to jump and change everything, go back in time and never leave, his jaw was locked at how they were all such meaningless photos which had caused such a reaction. “and have some room to fill with the times that you haven’t.” he looked into Vanya’s eyes. They were wide with the fear of being put down. Being scolded and shoved aside for sharing this gift with five, for wanting to help him. Five felt so empty and so full at the same time. He hoped that Vanya could see in his eyes what he wanted to express in words. But she looked down and away. He caught her wrist.  
“Vanya…” he didn’t know what to say, the words hid themselves in his mind. She turned back, waiting. “Thank you.” it was all he could think of but it didn’t even seem to cover how much this meant to him. She smiled faintly and turned away. He gripped her wrist more firmly. “I mean it.” She gave him a bigger smile and lifted her head.  
“Do you want anything?”  
“I’m ok.” The words left his mouth before he could reconsider his hollow stomach but she had left, walking towards the bar. He saw his siblings both there and on the sofa talking easily between themselves so he looked down again to the card he had been left with. At least the envelope was fresh. It was a plain card, a bright merry Christmas with glitter and holly berries. He opened it and read what Vanya had to say.  
Five, happy Christmas. I know no one is talking about it because no one knows how to broach it but I thought this is probably the best way to do it.   
Five paused, sneaking a look at the bar where Vanya was turned away from him.  
Thank you. five paused again, now very confused at what was happening. We all want to thank you for saving us in the warehouse, I don’t care if you say it was your fault, that they were commission cronies, blah blah blah. I didn’t see much but Diego told me what happened. We’re happy you’re with us again five, we all missed you. And we’re thankful you saved our lives, Diego won’t stop going on about how you took a bullet for Klaus. We were all really worried when you were at the hospital and are glad you’re home but you’ve got to take care of yourself alright. And that starts with asking for help when you need it. We all know you’re not a child but we would help anyone who needs it. We’re all adults here so let us help you. Its ok if you don’t want to talk about what happened but I know Klaus was pretty shaken up by what happened. He looked up to where Klaus was shaking the mixer. But he’s happy knowing he’s got a big brother like you to protect him. As always, love Vanya.   
Five doesn’t cry. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel anything. Instead his stomach twists and his eyes grow hot. Instead he has to focus on breathing past the lump in his throat. Vanya turned, smiling with a drink in her hand and caught fives eye. He looked at her and placed the card beside the others on the table. She smiled at him and he offered a smile back. He was tired of being the protector of his siblings. Tired of closing his eyes at night with one hand on the gun beneath his pillow. But the thought that someone else slept better, especially Klaus, made his shoulders lift a little. So he spent the day with his siblings and noticed the slightly warmer but sadder smiles they gave him, smiles he once thought were worry. He sat by the fire, ate cookies, and fell asleep, yes with a gun in his waistband, but with both hands in his lap, beside a crackling fire and a cackling family. Both his bone weariness and their lulling melody lilting him to the most weightless sleep he had had in a long, long time.

The End


End file.
